When You're In Love
by auburnwriter98
Summary: Ever wish you could see the parts of a story a movie skipped over? Well here's what I think Seven Brides For Seven Brothers was missing. Starting at Milly's first night at the Pontipee Farm...based on the film and several stage productions I have seen. Rated T for now, but might become M later? We'll see how it goes:) Please review! I'm new to writing but want to get better!
1. Chapter 1 - Introduction

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

"Alright, if you're gonna _act _like hogs, you can _eat _like 'em!"

Milly replayed those words over and over again in her head.

"Maybe I was too harsh, perhaps I acted in anger," she thought. "No, those boys deserved it; somebody has to get them to stop acting that way." Should she have pushed over the table? Should she not have? Did she yell too much? She questioned every move she had made during her tirade. This continued as she went through bouts of rage, then tears, then anger, then back to tears yet again.

When she finally gathered herself and stopped to look around at the bedroom she had stormed off to, she started to come down from her stupor, and her furiousness was slowly replaced by curiosity. She looked up from the bed she had thrown herself on, and took in her surroundings.

Against one wall there was a small chest, carved with intricate designs––a family piece, she assumed. She noted the pile of quilts stacked on it; not quite dirty, yet not quite clean either. Next to that was a bench, with what looked like boots under it, though they were so muddy she couldn't quite tell. Adam had sat one of bags down on it, and the other she found sitting in a rocking chair across the room.

On the next wall was a lantern, and under it a chair with a mountain of clothes piled atop it, leaning against the chest of drawers. Walking slowly, so as to not alert the boys downstairs to her movements, she worked her way over to it, and checked her reflection in the mirror that sat upon the chest.

Despite being used to looking unkempt, chopping wood isn't the easiest thing to do and stay tidy, she was pleased to find most of her hair in place, and her eyes not too swollen from the tears she hadn't intended on shedding. Slowly, she wiped her face on her apron, and smoothed back her hair. She didn't plan on letting them know how much they had upset her.

Her eyes wondered across the room to another table, with a washbasin on it and chamber pot below, and she quickly went over to splash some water on her face. However, she wasn't surprised to find that when she went to pour the water, the pitcher was empty.

She picked up the tattered kerchief that sat next to the bowl and held it thoughtfully. Milly supposed it had started out red, but now it was decidedly brown. She wondered how much a man had to work to turn an entire kerchief brown. She smiled at the thought of how hardworking her new husband was, but then remembered why she was up here in the first place, and hastily put it back down.

Working her way over to the bed to straighten the blankets she had ruffled, she looked up at the wall. There was a single window and two portraits, one hanging on each side. She suspected them to be Mr. and Mrs. Pontipee, in photographs taken back east before they made their way out to Oregon, long before they had this rowdy brood of sons. On the side table next to the window was another lantern and a dusty Bible, which had obviously sat in its state for quite some time. Over the bed hung a framed cross-stitch piece, of what looked like a Bible verse.

Moving her bag and sitting down in the rocking chair, Milly began to think. It wouldn't be long until the boys went to bed, and she'd have to face Adam again.


	2. Chapter 2 - Talking

CHAPTER 2 - TALKING

Milly was startled to hear someone climbing the stairs, but she had been expecting it for quite a while now. Unless the Pontipee's had a much later bedtime than most other folks around here, they were at least an hour late. Maybe Adam had been putting this conversation off too. Suddenly there were three knocks at the door.

"Who is it?" Milly asked, not intending on making it easy for her groom.

"It's Adam, your husband," she heard the deep voice reply, knowing it was probably deeper than it should've been.

"Showing off for his brothers, goodness," she thought to herself, before replying in a slow, sweetly drawn-out voice, "Come in Adam."

"G'night boys," said Adam, and then the door whipped open. He paused, not expecting her to be fully dressed and rocking in the chair, appearing to be reading intently. He slowly shut the door behind him, choosing his next words carefully.

"I––uh––I thought you'd be in bed," he stuttered.

"Did you?" Milly replied, seeing how long it would take him to get the picture.

"Been a right busy day… you must be kinda tuckered out," Adam replied, unknowingly walking into her trap.

"That's right," she responded.

"Shall I––uh––turn down the covers?" Adam wasn't sure how a woman got ready for bed, but it couldn't be that different from a man, could it?

"You can if you like…" she answered, waiting until he had moved towards the bed and began fumbling with the blankets to finish her sentence, "…but I'm not going to bed."

Adam's smirk fell off his face, and a confused, truly befuddled look replaced it.

"You don't want a wife Adam, you want a cook, a washer woman, a hired girl! Well, a hired girl's got a right to a sleepin' place of her own." Milly looked up, and felt the anger boiling up in her again. She wasn't sure she wanted to shove it down just yet.

Adam began to respond, "Well I reckon that's so, Milly–"

"Oh and in the wagon you let me talk!" Milly interrupted, "Made a fool of myself, talking about you and me. You should've stopped me!"

Adam looked down, and said ashamedly, but honestly, "Maybe I should've, but it sounded real pretty. Besides, if I had told you beforehand you might not have married me…and I wanted you to marry me Milly…I wanted it real bad." He knew he had tricked her, but he needed to smooth this over before his brothers heard any of this. They wouldn't let him live down a big fight on the first night of being married.

Milly quickly stood up and though she was several feet shorter than her husband, looked him square in the eye.

"Sure you did, 'cause you knew I was young and strong and there was lots of work left in me." The words tasted like fire in her mouth, and though she knew they were true, she saw them cut deep.

"Well, I suppose that's partly true," Adam said, partly to his wife, and partly to himself. He thought the situation over. "It's a hard life out here Milly. There's trees waitin' to be felled, land to be plowed and fenced, stock to be fed––a man needs a wife who can work alongside him!"

Adam looked carefully at his wife, hoping to see the anger wipe off her face. She slowly walked towards him, then stopped and turned to go the chest of drawers. He sat for a moment, and then went back to turning down the covers.

Milly heard the blankets shuffling behind her, and spelled out her next words very carefully.

"Well I'll _work _alongside you Adam," she paused, hearing him stop, "but I won't _sleep _alongside you."


	3. Chapter 3 - Alongside You

CHAPTER 3 – ALONGSIDE YOU

As Adam walked out of the bedroom, Milly looked in the mirror. She couldn't take any of it back now. She heard some muffled conversation, no doubt the boys ragging on Adam as he made some sort of excuse. She quickly walked back to the chair and picked up her book again, choosing a distraction for now. After a while, she decided her bodice was far too tight to sit comfortably, so she began undressing. Milly was trying to loosen her corset and trying not to think about sleeping arrangements when the door suddenly flew open. She gasped as she clutched whatever fabric she could grab to her chest, as Adam stared and slowly took in what was happening.

Leaping into action, Adam shut the door behind him; set down a cup as he said, "Have a drink," and crossed the bedroom floor in three long steps. He opened the window and crawled out onto the tree that sat just outside, as Milly looked on.

"Why, what are you doing?" she asked, walking over to the window as she wrapped a shawl around herself, truly bewildered as to what was happening.

Adam looked around as he tried his best to balance himself on the limb. "Beddin' down for the night, though I don't know what birds see it."

Milly thought to herself. He couldn't be seen sleeping downstairs by his brothers, but he wasn't exactly welcome to sleep in the same place as his wife. She was grateful he didn't force her to sleep somewhere else, at least he had that decency, but she still wasn't sure how good an idea this was. After all, she was mad at him, but didn't think him falling out of a tree in the middle of the night would help any. She slowly walked back to her bag when she realized she didn't want to leave things like this.

"Adam?" Milly said timidly, still unsure of what she was doing.

"Yes Milly?"

"…do you want a blanket?" She asked, unable to bring herself to say what she meant.

Adam realized what she was doing, fishing around to keep the conversation going. He wasn't about to give in to anything. He cooly replied, "No thanks," before he realized how uncomfortable this branch was. He tried shifting, but that didn't seem to help. He could see Milly was sitting in the rocking chair again, looking down at the fringe on her shawl, braiding it and unbraiding it. She looked a little dejected, and he though maybe, just maybe, he could get her to invite him back inside on her own.

"Milly?"

"Yes Adam?" she responded a little too quickly. She wasn't sure what she was hoping he would say.

"There's no need to sleep in that chair, you can use the bed," he said. Guilt always worked on his brothers, why shouldn't it work on women too?

"Oh…" she remarked as her stomach fell just a little, "yes, of course."

Why did she feel bad about this? He was the one who tricked her. Adam was the one who started this. "He made his own bed, he should lie in it," she thought, thinking of the irony of him most certainly NOT being in a bed right now, hearing him shift uncomfortably in the tree yet again.

Oh, but she needed to hear an apology from him. Part of her still hoped they could get along for now, she wasn't even concerned about whether or not they would have some semblance of a wedding night. While the girls in town had always dreamt up such romantic notions about being man and wife, her mother had always said that marriage was going to bed and waking up with the same person for the rest of your life, no matter what was going on. She mustered up her courage and walked towards the window.

"Adam?"

"Yes Milly?" Adam asked excitedly. His plan was working. He shifted in the tree, preparing to climb back to the roof.

"Well, I gotta know something." Milly said, as Adam's smile fell off. "I don't what happened today to happen again. I want to trust you. Can I trust you Adam?"

Now Adam was confused again. What happened today? There was so much she could be talking about! He started running through a list in his head until he looked up again at the window. Kneeling with her hands on the windowsill was Milly. She looked almost angelic, in her white chemise and shawl, lantern light glowing around her. Her eyes connected with his and he forgot the list in his head. He had married this person for better or worse. He had done something awful, and he knew it, but she deserved better. Slowly, he answered her last question. "You can Milly," he said, and he meant it.

"Well…did you really want to marry me?"

Part of her was shocked by what she said, but part of her needed an answer. Milly knew what she said earlier had been true. He married a young woman who could work the farm. That could have been lots of girls in town. She needed to know he had married her for who she was, not what she could do.

"Well did I really want to _marry _you?" Adam started, before thinking about his response. Yes, he did have selfish motivations for trying to get back inside, but he also knew that he needed to heal this argument if this marriage was going to become anything other than a ring and a set of vows. "…Why sure I did. I already told you before, real bad."

Adam saw her face soften, and looked into her deep brown eyes as he continued, "You're a right spunky gal Milly, and I liked that. And besides, what fool wouldn't want to marry a woman with a figure…that a man's not supposed to notice, and hair that shines…better than a thoroughbred after a good brushin'."

Milly was surprised. She hadn't expected compliments about her appearance, but it touched her heart to hear that he had noticed things about her.

"Well, I guess I was pretty mad." She thought longingly, "I had built up such a store of dreams."

Adam shifted once again, as a new twig pricked him in the back. He saw her guard was coming down.

Milly considered the options here, and knew that he needed to come inside, at least for now. He had apologized without saying the words. But she still couldn't just invite him in without reason.

"I know how it is, with your brothers, you being the head of the house and all," Milly continued. "…you gotta keep their respect. I wouldn't want you to lose face."

She looked at Adam's face as hope started to build in his very blue eyes. How had she not noticed them before? She shook the thought from her mind, and went on. "All things considered, maybe you'd better come back in here."

Adam internally rejoiced, and slowly clamored his way back to the window, having made it almost all the way through before his foot caught the windowsill and he came tumbling in, throwing off his balance and crashing into the bed, knocking the frame apart and falling into a heap on top of him.

"_Oh Adam_!"


	4. Chapter 4 - Oh Adam

CHAPTER 4 – OH ADAM

Still in shock, Milly gaped at the heap of blankets and wood that somehow swallowed Adam. She quickly rushed over to see if he was injured and helped him up.

"Are you–"

"I––uh––I didn't mean to…"

"Let me help you up…"

"I'm fine really–"

They both stammered over their words and clamored over the pile of bedding until both of them were upright. Slowly looking around at the mess that had been made in mere seconds, shock became amusement, starting as stifled giggling that erupted into full on laughter. Standing at the foot of what used to be a bed, they started picking up the mess, with Milly gathering blankets and pillows as Adam tried to gather the frames.

"Maybe we should just leave the mattress on the floor tonight, and leave fixing this all to tomorrow," Milly said, her mood in a much better state than it had been minutes ago.

"Leaving your wife to sleep on the floor her first night here? Absolutely not." Adam wasn't sure if he was embarrassed or resolved to do better, but he was fixing this bed right now, that was for sure.

"Here, let me hold the post while you get the frame in line," Milly responded.

"I can handle this, really," Adam answered, knowing full well she was going to help anyway.

Piece by piece, they got the posts upright and put the frame back together. Milly had even tried to drag the mattress back on it until Adam picked the whole thing up and plopped it down without batting an eye. She started putting the covers back on and was surprised when he started tucking things in too.

"I thought this was women's work," Milly said.

"Oh," Adam muttered, "I just figured, I've been making my own bed for so long now, and I…"

"It's fine, I like the help." Milly thought to herself about the house she was taking over. There had been seven boys living here all by themselves before, without a woman to clean or cook or do laundry. She supposed they had learned to do it themselves, all except for cleaning. Wanting to ease the tension, she thought of something else to say.

"My father used to help my mother around the house. Little things, like helping her tidy the dishes after dinner, or helping her pin up laundry before he went out to the fields and got his hands all dirty," Milly said.

"It wasn't like that for my parents," Adam replied. "Ma would give Pa a kiss on the cheek as he left the kitchen to head to work in the morning, and Pa would give her a kiss on the cheek as we sat down for supper. Other than that, they each did their own work."

"Oh. I didn't mean to–"

"You didn't." he said quickly, not meaning to make things awkward again. "I think they got used to having too much work to do around here, we were some of the first people out here from the trail and new we needed to get settled. Besides, I know they still loved each other, I have six younger brothers to prove it." Adam sat down on the finished bed, knowing he had made it even more awkward.

"I bet having siblings is nice, despite the added stresses they bring," Milly diverted, as she walked back to the corner to continue undressing. "I don't have any, and sometimes I think about how different life would've been with a brother or sister."

"I can guarantee you this, I wouldn't be here today without the boys, that's for certain. But then again, sometimes I think having just a few less of 'em wouldn't be so bad either."

Adam meant to keep talking, but by now Milly had nothing on but her chemise, and he knew he was gawking. Milly turned around slowly, to see if he was looking at her. She knew she shouldn't be nervous, this was her husband after all, but she still was nonetheless.

Adam quickly stood up and walked to the chest of drawers, purposefully keeping his eyes averted and looking very intently for something at the back of the drawer he randomly opened, trying to keep his mind off the fact that his new wife was changing into her nightgown. When he heard her move towards the bed, he began to undress. He wasn't shy about his body, but he was concerned he might not be able to, keep control, as the guys put it, so he tried to put on his long johns as quickly as he could.

Milly walked slowly, admiring her husband's physique. Thinking dreamily, she stopped somewhere between her husband's biceps and looking lustfully at the rippling back muscles, as she bumped into the bed. She realized where she was, and then looked carefully at the bed, unsure of what she was doing.

"Which side?" she asked.

"Huh?" Adam replied, finishing the last of his buttons before turning around.

"Which side…do you normally sleep on?" she extended her question this time, looking at up at him as he turned to face her.

Adam looked at her, then the bed, then back to her, before he realized what she was asking. "Oh, it doesn't really matter, you pick whichever one you'd prefer."

Milly didn't have a preference either, but she slipped over to the left side and sat down facing the window. "I'll bet the sunrise looks lovely from here, I'll take this one…if you don't mind."

"No, not at all."

Both of them slipped under the covers, silently, and looked up at the ceiling. Milly had thought she might need to get another blanket, but lying inches from Adam, she could feel the heat coming off him. She wouldn't need a blanket after all. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

Both of them knew what was supposed to happen next. While they were strangers, both were grateful to be physically attracted to their spouse. Adam was mesmerized by Milly's beauty, and Milly was entranced by Adam's physique. Still, neither of them knew where to start.

At the end of a very long silence, Adam turned to face Milly, and said sweetly, "Should we just start with a kiss goodnight?"

Milly said yes––not with her words but with her lips. She knew Adam was a good kisser from their wedding ceremony a few hours ago, but this was something different entirely. His lips ignited this passion, and his wandering over hoer body fueled the flame. She wasn't sure what he was doing or how he was doing it, but she didn't want whatever it was to stop.

She ran her fingers through his red curls as his lips roamed from hers over to her ear, where they slowly traced a line down to her collarbone, as she simply sighed,

"Oh… _Adam_…"


End file.
